The White House has approved the sale of the F-15 Eagle to Qatar, saving the production line in Missouri from closing. Two other supplies have been authorized to Bahrain and Kuwait.
As confirmed by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the White House has given the green light for the sale of 72 F-15Es Strike Eagle for Qatar worth 4 billion dollars and 40 F / A-18 E / F Super Hornet for Kuwait for a value of three billion dollars. Bahrain will still have to formulate the acquisition with Lockheed Martin for the F-16s.
Born in the late 70s as low-cost supplements to the F-15 air superiority fighter and the F-14 missile platform Tomcat, F-16 and F-18 have evolved over the years, becoming extremely capable platforms. Just think that the Super Hornet it has a practically different cell than the original design. The F-16, on the other hand, evolved from dogfighter pure at low cost in multirole hunting.
The approval of the supplies comes after the signing of the new military assistance program signed with Israel. The latter accuses Qatar of having close ties with extreme Sunni Islamic organizations. Finally, Israel's opposition to the sale of fighters also arose from the need to preserve the qualitative military advantage in the region.
Finally, the Pentagon, with these contracts, obtains an undoubted advantage: the keeping in operation of the production lines that could be useful in the future.
(photo: US Air Force)
